Not too surprised. Good for him. And good for the Patriots if you ask me. I just wonder how this will impact our Super Bowl run.

I wonder who's next in line?

Just a little side note... who updates Wikipedia so quickly and intensely? Rrrright after this was announced, bam, it's already updated on his wiki page (which is pretty sparse and doesn't get a ton of hits anyway btw). Just strange lol.

A candidate could be Brian Ferentz, an offensive assistant and TE's coach. Not to say he's been the primary factor in Gronk & Hernandez's emergence, since they have a great deal of talent, but he's obviously played a part and done a great job with it.

Or taking it even further, a surprise nominee would be Kirk Ferentz (Iowa HC), a name that's been thrown around a little bit over the last 5 years or so as a possible NFL HC. He has an offensive background I believe and coached with BB in Cleveland.

Overall though, I think the most likely scenario would be once again not having a "designated" OC, like BOB's first year.

The funny thing about going to Penn State is that nobody will be able to tell for at least a couple years whether he's doing a bad job.

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Well, I think this is set up for success for him. There is a deep well of love for this program that is sitting on the back burner, waiting for a reason to show up again. O'Brien will collect more money in a single year than he would make in five for the Pats, easily, and give it a shot. If it doesn't work, he'll be seen as the inevitable post-Paterno and post-scandal fall guy, and be welcome back to the NFL or some other job after three or four years. If it does work, he's a hero.

Good for him. The transition isn't an easy one, regardless of the circumstances, but at least Penn State has well established recruiting connections in place that don't require as much maintenance as most school's do.